A comment on the blog of Wise Advice says that the National Federation of the Blind in Colorado is going to protest the film, "Blindness," which opens Oct. 3. The film stars Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Danny Glover (pictured).The Sundance Channel aired a documentary about the making of "Blindness" called "A Vision of Blindness" Sept. 29. Part of the documentary focused on how they trained all the extras to "act blind." Although I understand that they did need some sighted extras to show their transition to blindness, I think it would have enhanced the film if they had asked blind people to work as some of the 700 extras they needed for the film.
Canadian acting coach Christian Duurvoort, who served as the "blindness coach" on the film, said in the documentary that in training the extras he was "trying to get away from the traumatic idea of being blind because a lot of people who are blind are adapted, are happy. In our movie these people won't be happy with it."
The LA Times blog wrote about the production of the film in January and how they trained all the extras to "play blind."
For the crew and cast, which includes roughly 700 extras, making “Blindness” was alternately frightening, draining and exhilarating. That was especially true of training to act “blind,” says Christian Duurvoort, an actor who coached his colleagues in a series of workshops.
First, Duurvoort says, he did research by interviewing blind people, learning how they use their other senses to orient themselves in space and how they perceive the world around them. He then experimented by blindfolding himself.
“I went to a park, I bumped into trees, I fell into holes, I got very irritated. I learned a lot of things about me I didn’t like,” he says, laughing.
Just as important as understanding the physical mechanics of being blind, Duurvoort says, was helping the actors deal with “the emotional state, the psychological state, being vulnerable.”
Meirelles had emphasized that he wanted the extras to seem like desperate, traumatized human beings, not B-movie zombies.
Practically everyone working on the film donned a blindfold at some point, even the producers and the director. Meirelles says the experience brought him to “a state of peace.” But other crew members panicked.
In one exercise, the main actors were blindfolded and told to follow the sound of a bell. Ruffalo particularly had trouble and kept wandering around getting more and more lost. During shooting, in addition to a thick makeup layer to make him appear older, Ruffalo wore special contact lenses that rendered him blind, though his eyes were open.
“At first it’s terrifying and then it’s frustrating and then it gets quiet,” says Ruffalo during a break from shooting. “We’re tormented by our eyesight. A beautiful girl walks by, cars, clothes, terrible things on television. We’re tormented by our eyes. You don’t know this until you go blind…. As an actor I suddenly felt free.”
